Alsa doesn't detect external mic

[Josh Anders]

I have a Logitech mini-jack headset with a mic. Sound playback works, but recording does not; it only works through the computer's built-in microphone.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 0: STAC92xx Analog [STAC92xx Analog]
   Subdevices: 2/2
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
   Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: josh 2688 F.... pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'SB'/'HDA ATI SB at 0x92400000 irq 16'
   Mixer name : 'IDT 92HD71B7X'
   Components : 'HDA:111d76b2,103c3600,00100302'
   Controls : 35
   Simple ctrls : 22
Card1.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:1 'HDMI'/'HDA ATI HDMI at 0x92310000 irq 19'
   Mixer name : 'ATI R6xx HDMI'
   Components : 'HDA:1002aa01,00aa0100,00100000'
   Controls : 4
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card1.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [off]
CheckboxSubmission: 6bacad257d07e21537e077802a955e05
CheckboxSystem: e704f33cc0866ff0f0256a33de39ea1c
Date: Thu Oct 29 17:31:38 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
Package: alsa-base 1.0.20+dfsg-1ubuntu5
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic x86_64

[Linkowiezi (linkowiezi84)]

I have the exact same problem.
Sound recording works trough laptops built in mic, but alsa doesn't seem to be able to use the external mic jack as input.

This was however not a problem in the previous 9.4 jaunty version, then it worked flawlessly from scratch, I haven't read the changelogs and made any comparisons so I don't know what's changed but it would be great if someone could come up with a fix for this(since google hasn't done muck for me in this matter) so I don't have to log in to windows to make recordings with an external mic, guitar or whatever I wish to plug in to the jack.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Firstly, make sure that you have karmic-updates active, then update and dist-upgrade to the latest packages. Then, install linux-alsa-driver-modules-2.6.31-19-generic from the ubuntu-audio-dev PPA.

[Linkowiezi (linkowiezi84)]

Thanks Daniel, that did the trick to get the mic jack up and running!
The only problem now is that it seems to capture all sound, not only trough the mic jack but the built in mic also.
This causes a bit of echoing for other people if you are voice chatting.

Haven't had the time to try anything else, but probably recording stuff with an external source plugged in to the mic jack while having some output trough the headphones will now also capture and record all the output coming trough the headphones to.

Do you or anyone else have a solution for this problem as well to enable capturing for only the microphones and not everything going trough the sound card?

[Linkowiezi (linkowiezi84)]

OK, my problem is solved now:

Sound Preferences -> Input -> Connector -> Microphone/Microphone

That seemed to do the trick to the followup problem that accured to me(input started to capture ALL sound going trough the soundcard) after Daniel T Chen's fix.

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

Further to comments #3 and #5, closing now as fixed.

[Christopher Barrington-Leigh (cpbl)]

Fix was apparently released, yet for me the problem arose first when I upgraded to 19.10.
I now have no access to the microphone on my headset.